The Thinnest Ice
by Gribzie
Summary: Complete. With Squall and Rinoas relationship on rocky ground, will a lovestruck Zell finally win the affections of the woman he loves?


The Thinnest Ice

"Man I'm one good looking, S o B; everyone knows them ladies can't get enough of me. The look and they like what they see, the Z man is the top dog ever since he was three. Oh yeah they look but they can't touch, they want this but I'm just too hot to handle..."

"Zell, What are you doing??" Said Ma Dincht from downstairs "Get down stairs now!!"

Zell turned bright red, he stepped away from his mirror and got his clothes on. Quickly taking one more glance at himself in the mirror, he blew his reflection a kiss and ran downstairs. "What do you want mum, I'm a busy man" he said. "At 17 years of age you hardly constitute a man, you've got errands to run young man" she replied. "God damnit ma', your lucky I love you". He left the house dressed in his finest clothes, he couldn't risk one of the fine ladies in the village seeing him in his 'HoboSheek' house clothes.

He ran over to the hotel where his father worked and delivered his lunch "there you go Dad, you gotta start taking this with you, delivering this everyday chews through allot of my time you know" Zell said, his father gave him a quick slap around the head and Zell leaves muttering angrily about his hair. He walked towards the docks deliberately going the long way around so he would pass a group of local girls. "How you doing Zell?" They asked him teasingly, Zell found him self suddenly struck dumb, most unusually he had nothing to say. He turned beet red and made a deliberate run for the docks. This always happened to Zell, he talked a big game to himself in the mirror but when it came to 'The Ladies' he could never think of what to say.

Two weeks later it was Squalls birthday party at the garden. Zell dressed in his party gear and took one of his many packets of flour tubes. He walked to the garden as his car was still being repaired, he had a crash some weeks before because he took his eyes off the road when he noticed how good looking the woman in the next car was. When he got there he instantly lost his taste for the party atmosphere, this always happened at squalls parties because he and Seifer were invariably surrounded by girls while he was left by himself talking to Quistis.

He said happy birthday to Squall and took his usual place in the back corner of the room, but instead of his usual partner in the back corner he was joined by an unusual guest. "Rinoa, what are you doing here, Squalls over there" He said in a slightly hoarse voice, he had always found Riona extremely attractive, but had managed to hide it because he was scared of Squall. "Him?, He's too busy with the skank parade as usual, I'm sick of it, I've put up with his crap for over a year, he's skating on thin ice and I don't think he has a clue" She fumed, Zell could tell that she was about ready to blow so he did what he could to calm her. "look you know he loves you, we all do, its just he sometimes takes you for granted, no ones perfect" He stammered "well that is with the exception of you". Rinoa looked at him and smiled "you're sweet to say it but I'm anything but perfect, I s'pose I should take it easy on him...thanks Zell" she got up and left him sitting by himself.

Squall and Rinoa continued to bicker over the following days in the aftermath of Squall's birthday party, the relationship was hanging by a thread but Squalls ability to turn on the charm at just the right time allowed the relationship to regain a little bit of stability. Zell had gone home the night of the party and contemplated Rinoa's behavior at the party. He detested the way that Squall treated Rinoa but, until then, had simultaneously felt that it was none of his business. He began to think strongly about telling Rinoa how he felt about her, thinking that she too may feel that Squall took her for granted. He abandoned this plan thinking of the ass kicking he would have taken if Squall found out what he had said.

He could not figure out what to do, in his heart he knew that Rinoa deserved better, but his head continued to tell him that he was being stupid. He eventually began talking it out loud to see if it made any more sense out loud than it did in his head:

"_**Squall treats her like dirt"**_

"Squall also has mastery with a gun blade"

"_**She DESERVES better**_**"**

"She might wise up and drop kick his ass"

"_**You know she loves him too much to do that**_"

"That's now the bloody point, the point is she has a boyfriend"

"_**You know who might be able to help us…"**_

"IRVINE!!"

Irvine Kinneas was the biggest ladies man in the Garden, there was not one girl that he had failed to woo at one stage or another in his tenure at the garden, with the acception of Rinoa who he had not been stupid enough to pursue. He welcomed Zell as always, with a quick motioning for someone behind the door to climb down the fire exit so Zell wouldn't find out who they were. "So Zell, what brings you here this early?" Irvine asked "you know your always welcome, but when there's a tie on the doorknob….just walk away and come back an hour later". Zell looked at him for a few seconds and replied "One, its not early, in fact it's 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and second…..an hour??".

Irvine was grinning like a chipmunk, Zell had always found his longevity in the bedroom to be something of an enigma. "Ignore that, what's your problem you said that it had something to do with Rinoa, I didn't really pay attention on the phone I was busy" , he threw a pair of panties off the chair opposite his bed and motioned for Zell to sit down. Over the next hour and a half Zell spilled his inner most feelings to a slightly baffled Irvine, who's only though was 'your telling me why? But instead of saying this he decided to give the only advice he knew how to give. "Look Zell, if you wanna get that girl to dump the zero, your gonna have to convince her how good you are…treat her like a goddess and she will eventually see the light"

Zell took Irvine's advice to heart, he went out of his way over the following days and weeks to find out everything about her. He managed to find out her favorite song, food, restaurant, movie, band, flower and the names of almost all of her relatives. He did not know how he was going to use all of this to win over Rinoa but he knew he had to find a way. He decided to start off his plan as an anonymous admirer, at least that way he could guage her reaction without having to worry about Squall. He started by sending her a bouquet of red roses, he knew these were her favorites. When she received the flowers Zell was hiding at the entrance to the stairs, just to the left of Riona's dorm. Her reaction was as good as Zell could have hoped for, she grinned to herself and took the flowers into her dormitory. "At least she didn't give them back...it's a start" Zell said to himself.

The events of the following day would drastically change the outlook of Zell's plan. As he had been walking down the corridor to his dormitory he noticed that Squalls door was open. Being neighborly Zell decided to close it for him, but as he got to the door he heard a soft moaning noise coming from the bedroom. Zell, worried that squall had hurt himself, ran into Squalls room to see Squall and Selfie in bed together. "Zell, what are you doing here you ass?" Squall yelled, "I thought you were hurt...but I guess its Rinoa that is going to be hurt" Zell replied. Squall stood up and put his pants back on, "Zell, I'm going to make this clear as day, because I know your not all up top...If you tell Rinoa what you saw today, I'm going to kill you, plain and simply, I'm going to get my gunblade and cut your throat open"

Zell spent the following two weeks keeping up his covert operation, sending Rinoa roses, and her favorite chocolates (Hershey's Kisses). He had not told her what he had seen but had spent every waking moment contemplating what she would say if he did. Would she believe him? Would she think he was trying to break them up so he could move in? He could not answer any of these questions. Although he had been forbidden to reveal what he had seen to Rinoa he had not been forbidden to reveal the information to other people, so he decided to return to Irvine for more advice and possibly a calming though that would make his course of action clearer.

"Your fucked buddy..." Irvine sighed "...If you don't tell her and she finds out she is going to hate you forever, forget a girlfriend you'll make a mortal enemy, however if you tell her Squall _will_ Cut your balls off, feed them to Griever end burn the excretions...your rooted mate". Zell did not know what to do, no stroke of genius came along to help him, he was so confused and he had no one who could help him, no one knew his situation well enough to help him, no one that Zell knew anyway. As Zell was ready to loose all hope the one man in the world who was as hopeless in love as he was walked through the gardens iron gates. "Laguna, hey, Laguna can you come here for a second, I have a question"

Laguna and Zell talked well into the night, Zell told him everything about what was happening to him, his plan, and what Squall was doing. "Well the way I see it, you can a, slug it out with him, that worked in my day...although in my day, females were quite literally _**OBJECTS**_ of affection if you catch my drift" Laguna gave Zell a wink. Zell of course being the ditz that he was had no idea what Laguna was talking about. "Well that doesn't make my problem go away" Zell pressed on. Laguna interrupted him "you have one other option, tell her the truth, I know Squall, he wont do anything but cold shoulder you, which means he may talk to you a little more then usual..."

Zell could not bring himself to tell Rinoa what he had seen, he could not even bring himself to confront Squall. He thought himself a coward but rationalized it, he could not bring himself to make Riona sad, it had been his life's mission in the past months to make her feel as happy as possible, and he could not destroy all his hard work. Although this reasoning sounded good in his head he knew that he was really saving his own skin.

Meanwhile Selphie and the garden committee were organizing a huge party to celebrate its 100 years of training the most precisioned military operatives in the country. It was to be a gala event the likes of which no one had ever seen before or would see in the future, or at least that what the posters had been advertising. Zell was looking forward to a chance to let his hair down and party, he thought it would take his mind off the unpleasantness of his life.

Zell decided that the best thing for him would be to take a few weeks off, to stay around Balamb working with his dad rather than working at the garden where he was the target of Squalls constant threats. He decided to take three weeks off, he thought it would give him time to wind down and he could make his return on the eve of the Garden party. He was a recluse for the weeks following, he did not come out of his room at any time, and he trained for 8 hours a day and ate meals in his room. He showered in his en suite and refused to come down for any reason.

On the day he was set to return, the dread filling him at the promise of more violence he had an unexpected visitor. Laguna had come to visit him, and he came with news. "Squall and Rinoa have split up, she was him flirting with Selphie and she went ballistic, she still doesn't know about the affair but she's left him anyway" he whispered. Zell was happy to hear this but he did not know why Laguna had come to tell him this now, he would have found out when he went to the party anyway. As Laguna left the house Ma Dincht tapped Zell on the shoulder "Mr. Loire left this for you Zell" she said as she handed him a brown envelope with the words 'Open when I leave - Laguna' written in neat black writing. Zell went up to his room and opened the letter and sat down to read it thinking it was going to be something long winded and gushy (which was Laguna's style) but it contained just one sentence 'Be at the party, Dress well, all the arrangements have been made, you'll know what to do when the time comes' He reread the letter several times and could not decipher what it was that Laguna could have arranged for him.

He got dressed for the dance in his best clothes, he was very nervous and he did not know what to expect. He left the house early , he did not want to be late to the party as he could not risk missing what Laguna had planned. As he arrived he saw Squall sitting with his normal group of girls with Rinoa as the only acception. While he still had the same smug look he always wore, but Zell could tell and underlying look of anger, which more closely resembled 'the old Squall' the one Zell liked. Zell thought he would try to make peace with Squall, he thought the least he could do was make an effort to reconcile their differences. "Squall I heard about you and Rinoa, man I'm sorry I know how much you loved her" Zell looked at Squall waiting for a response, without warning he felt a strong hand on his shoulder. Within seconds he was outside on the dirt ground with Squall kicking him as hard as his legs could muster. On adrenaline and instinct alone, Zell hit Squall with a gargantuan uppercut which knocked Squall out cold. He stumbled back inside and as he did the lights went light blue and Rinoa's favorite song started to play 'Eyes on Me'.

He walked up to her bloodied and bashed, and said the three words he has longed to say to her since he had first layed eyes upon her. "Riona...I...I love you" He said. She stared at him for what seemed like an eternity before finally she put her arms around his neck and they sank into a long kiss, for the first time in his life, Zell knew what it was like to be happy. And as they danced in the middle of the room to the tune of Rinoa's favorite song, one line of the lyrics rang true in both their minds "As you shyly placed your eyes on me, did you ever know that I had mine on you?"


End file.
